Washington (CNN) -- Partisan bickering over the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster intensified Tuesday as top Republicans once again slammed the Obama administration for imposing a six-month deepwater drilling moratorium and stepped up their fight against a Democratic move to lift current liability caps for oil spills.
Republicans also lashed out at Democrats for allegedly using the disaster to push an alternative energy agenda that the GOP contends will cripple the economic recovery.The political sniping took place as President Barack Obama headed back to Washington from the Gulf to prepare for a Tuesday night prime time speech on the response to the spill.The ruptured BP well at the center of the disaster is still believed to be spewing as much as 40,000 barrels -- or between 840,000 and 1.7 milllion gallons -- of crude every day.Republicans -- along with some Gulf Coast Democrats -- have been particularly upset with the president's decision in May to extend a ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf Coast from 30 days to six months. The ban requires all Gulf wells drilling in more than 500 feet of water to shut down, and prevents new permits from being issued. Wells that are already pumping crude, however, have been allowed to continue operating.
GOP fights Democrats on Gulf moratorium, liability"This moratorium does not makes sense," said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Louisiana. It is "based on unfounded science. It is not really based on any knowledge of technology or facts on the ground." Boustany complained that the temporary ban will be "hugely detrimental" to the economic recovery."When you shut down [deep water] drilling in the Gulf of Mexico ... you're killing jobs," warned Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. Eighty percent of all new oil production in United States occurs offshore, he said, and the majority of that production is in the Gulf.The rigs affected by the shutdown "will relocate and they won't come back," said Rep. Greg Harper, R-Mississippi. The moratorium is a "job killer" that "will make a horrible disaster ever worse....."
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Congressman Joe Barton, the senior Republican on Mr Waxman's committee, said that while he agreed BP should explain its actions, he was "ashamed" to see the firm having to set up the compensation fund.It was, he said, a "$20bn shakedown".
<http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.
"BP's reported willingness to go along with the White House's new fund suggests that the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics." R - Barton
"What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a "tragedy," but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments." - Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary
Well folks, just how much more evidence do you need that the Republican party cares nothing about the livelihood of the "little people" of the Gulf Coast or anywhere else in America, and yet half the voters in this country want to blame a President that has done more during this terrible tragedy than any other president in recent memory to help the American common man.
Congressman Barton should be road out of Congress on a rail. But he does perhaps put more of a magnifying glass on the Republican ideology of holding hands with big corporate donors no matter
how it turns out for middle class Americans. People everywhere are saying "Where's the change Mr. President?" I say to the naysayers: EXAMINE THE FACTS! More progressive change has happened in this country in a little over a year than has happened in almost a dozen years. While the old vanguard typically needs glasses, its no excuse to keep blinders over them.
People, quit listening to Republican rhetoric motivated by greed and campaign donations
(for a hundred years or so) and open your eyes and ears. To continue to vote in these money mongering politicians is a sin and it is slowly and truly destroying our great country. You have yourselves as voters to blame for these wrongs just as well. Examine the facts, study your history. Just because our President has a calm demeanor and is pragmatic, doesn't mean he is sitting on his ass.
Wise up America.......
Regards,
C.
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